Fundraising
The Society raises funds to support the school and its current and immediate past pupils,including through its Awards (see the Awards page for details of these and of the recent recipients). OMs may donate directly (the Awards funds are held by the Old Maidstonian Society’s registered charity, so please use the Gift Aid form if appropriate as we will then be able to reclaim tax: a link to this form is on the right) or via http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk.
Something for nothing
This can be achieved when buying online. The something is funds for the Old Maidstonian Society to use to support the school and its current and immediately past students. The nothing is what it costs you!
Easyfundraising
How is this possible? Unless buying from Amazon (see below), the answer is easyfundraising.org.uk . Easyfundraising is a scheme in which any of over 3000 online retailers make donations to your nominated good cause from every purchase. To date over £12,000,000 has been donated to good causes through Easyfundraising. With only 6 OMs signed up to the scheme we had raised over £120 by the end of 2015. We hope more will join us.
To join up you first need to register. From your web browser go to http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk. Click on “Find a cause”. Type “Old Maidstonian Society” into the dialog box. We should come up as the first choice: click on “Support this cause” in the box for us. Then you will get a page to create an account. It’s very simple to complete. Make sure you can remember your password!
To ensure you do not forget to make donations when buying online, you can download a browser add-on, the Donation Reminder. Then whenever you buy from an online retailer in the scheme, a reminder will pop up asking you if you want to activate the donation: at this point you may need to give your password as verification (depending on whether you have done so before in the same browser session). To get the donation reminder, visit http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/raise-more/donation-reminder/
Further details are given below. If you have problems or queries, contact the OM webmaster [email protected]
Buying online from Amazon
From January 2020, Amazon no longer take part in Easyfundraising but have set up their own scheme. It offers a smaller percentage (0.5%) than almost all retailers in Easyfundraising, so please use Easyfundraising when there is a choice.
To set up your account for Amazon donations, go to http://smile.amazon.co.uk . If you have an existing Amazon online account, it is also valid for that site. Otherwise register as a new customer. When you first use Amazon Smile, nominate our charity ‘Old Maidstonian Trust’ to receive donations. From then on use smile.amazon.co.uk just as you would have used amazon.co.uk.
More details about Easyfundraising
The scale of EasyFundraising’s operation through its association with many high street retailers and ‘big brands’ is extensive, and although each purchase results in a very small individual donation, across many thousands of transactions it is extremely valuable to the designated charity. As an example, a £400 flight booked through the EasyFundraising portal raised £27 for the designated charity with absolutely no additional cost to the purchaser. With the number of members that the Society has, the total level of donations will be significant if advantage is taken of it..
It is important to draw a clear distinction between EasyFundraising, which is a shopping portal, and a donations site. In the case of a donation site, money is donated to a chosen cause and the donor trusts that their money will be passed to their nominated charity. With EasyFundraising, it is simply a matter of signing up, nominating a charity to benefit, and go online shopping, i.e. with ohn Lewis, Argos, M&S, Tesco, Next, Domino’s Pizza, Lakeland, ASOS, Apple, ASDA, Vodafone, Debenhams, Dell, The AA, Apple, American Express, The Train Line, Sainsbury, Expedia, Premier Inn, Lastminute.com, PC World, EBay, Debenhams, Homebase, and many more of over 3,000 other online retailers, including most of the big names in the UK. It does not cost the shopper anything. The retailer donates a percentage to the nominated charity. You do not pay any more for your purchases.
Once registered, to raise funds through your own personal shopping, just log in before you start shopping, using the username and password you gave EasyFundraising, and up to 15% from each purchase you make, depending on the retailer and the goods involved, will be donated to the Old Maidstonian Society. Once you’ve activated your account, you can immediately start raising funds from your own shopping.
In view of the enormous benefits to the Old Maidstonian Society and the support it gives to the students at the school, we are urging all members to take the time to register with EasyFundraising. Each purchase you subsequently make using the site will result in a small but very useful donation to the Society.